From PressTV
Former Mossad chief censures Netanyahu for opposing Iran talks
A former head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency has criticized the regime’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for antagonizing Washington over Iran’s nuclear program.
“The person who has caused the greatest strategic damage to Israel on the Iranian issue is the prime minister,” said Meir Dagan in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth released on Friday.
Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News RoundupDagan accused Netanyahu of bringing “intolerable” risks upon the Israeli regime by fraying ties with the US, adding the premier’s policies are detrimental to Tel Aviv’s future and security.
“I feel that we are now at a critical point regarding our existence and our security… Our standing in the world is not brilliant right now. The question of Israel’s legitimacy is up for debate,” he stated, adding, “We should not erode our relations with our most important friend…This is not proper behavior for a prime minister.”
From PressTV
Israeli forces attack Palestinian protesters in occupied West Bank
Scuffles have broken out when Israeli forces attacked two separate groups of Palestinians protesting in the occupied West Bank and opened fire to disperse the crowds.
On Friday, dozens of Palestinians and international activists held a demonstration in the village of Bil’in, located about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) west of the city of Ramallah, to express their resentment over the construction of the separation wall, which snakes across the occupied West Bank, isolating large swathes of Palestinian land.
Violence erupted when Israeli troops assaulted the protesters and fired tear gas canisters to break up the protest. Israeli soldiers also arrested several people. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The total length of the wall being built in the West Bank is approximately 700 kilometers. Palestinians see the wall as a symbol of occupation and Tel Aviv’s apartheid policies, saying the structure has divided people and communities.
Separately, Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), situated 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of al-Quds (Jerusalem), on Friday.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Iran Exaggerations Now Clear for All To See
By J.J. Goldberg
The document in question is a 2012 memo from Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, updating its South African counterpart on the status of Iran’s nuclear project. It’s one of several hundred classified South African intelligence documents leaked to Al Jazeera and reported February 23 in Al Jazeera and theGuardian of London.
What put the Mossad memo in the headlines is the fact that it’s dated October 22, 2012, barely three-and-a-half weeks after Netanyahu’s famous cartoon-bomb speech about Iran to the United Nations General Assembly. Yet it contradicted the Israeli leader’s U.N. speech on several critical points of fact, including how far away Iran was from bomb-making capacity and whether it even had the ability to produce weapons-grade uranium.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
UCLA student government member questioned about Jewish identity
(JTA) — A member of UCLA’s student government was asked in a hearing whether her Jewish identity presents a conflict of interest.
During a Feb. 10 hearing, four student government members at the University of California Los Angeles questioned Rachel Beyda’s ability to make unbiased decisions on cases in which the Jewish community had a vested interest while being an active in Jewish organizations on campus.
“What followed was a disgusting 40 minutes of what can only be described as unequivocal anti-Semitism during which some of our council members resorted to some of the oldest accusations against Jews, including divided loyalties and dishonesty,” wrote Beyda’s roommate Rachel Frenklak in the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper.
Fabienne Roth, Manjot Singh, Negeen Sadeghi-Movahed and Sofia Moreno Haq all raised concerns about confirming Beyda’s appointment to UCLA’s student government judicial board. Roth pointed to an example case from last May and argued that two students who had gone on sponsored trips to Israel should not have been allowed to vote on a resolution that involved targeting Israel with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions measures.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Dieudonne and Ahmadinejad trade mutual admiration
(JTA) — Iranian ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Dieudonne M’bala M’bala a “great artist” during a meeting in Tehran with the French comic who is a repeat inciter of hate against Jews.
Dieudonne visited the Islamic Republic last week, the news site fararu.com reported, and presentedAhmadinejad with a golden statue of a man performing the quenelle — a gesture reminiscent of the Nazi salute that Dieudonne is promoting as a sign of discontent with the establishment but that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has called a gesture of “anti-Semitic hate.”
Dieudonne calls the statue a “golden quenelle” and has presented a number of them to personalities he defines as anti-Zionist. Ahmadinejad is a noted Holocaust denier who during his presidency expressed his wish that Israel would disappear.
On his official Twitter account, Ahmadinejad wrote about the encounter: “Visiting an old friend, a great artist. #Dieudonne #all4Palestine.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Spanish-speaking Jews urge Spain to follow Portugal’s Jewish law of return
(JTA) — A representative of Spanish-speaking Jews urged Spain to follow Portugal’s lead and adopt a law of return for descendants of Sephardic Jews.
“While Portugal passed its law, in Spain it is stuck and is being watered down as we speak,” Leon Amiras, president of the Israel-based OLEI group representing Israelis from Latin America and Spain, told JTA on Friday.
Portugal and Spain in 2013 and 2014 respectively initiated legislation for naturalizing descendants of Jews who fled during the Inquisition. Both governments describe the initiatives as atonement for the religious persecution and expulsion of countless Jews approximately 500 years ago.
But while Lisbon has followed through and last month adopted a law of return for Jews that its parliament passed in 2013, Spain’s congress has yet to vote on its own legislation. The bill’s scope is being renegotiated amid calls to extend similar policies to Muslims.
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From The Times of Israel
AIPAC: We never opposed Netanyahu’s Congress speech
Pro-Israel lobby working to ensure lawmakers attend controversial address; soliciting reps to increase review of any final deal with Iran
WASHINGTON — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) denied Friday that it had ever opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to a joint session of Congress scheduled for next week.
“Any suggestion that AIPAC opposed the prime minister’s address is categorically false,” AIPAC Spokesman Marshall Wittmann told the Times of Israel. “AIPAC has been on record from the very beginning when the address was announced saying that we welcome the prime minister’s speech to Congress and that we believe that this is an important address.”
Recently, reports surfaced that AIPAC was opposed to Netanyahu’s planned speech – an event that has sparked tensions over whether President Barack Obama was intentionally sidestepped when Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Netanyahu to address Congress.
Administration officials and a number of Democrats in Congress accused Netanyahu of destroying a bipartisan pro-Israel consensus through his decision to accept the invitation.
According to Wittmann, “AIPAC has been lobbying members of Congress and we have been encouraged that the overwhelming majority of members we have contacted have indicated that they will attend the joint meeting of Congress.”
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From The Times of Israel
Jeb Bush says Obama’s foreign policies ‘catastrophic’
In interview with Israel Hayom, former governor blames Washington for rift in relations with Israel and backs Netanyahu speech
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush called US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy “catastrophic” on Friday and said Washington was wrong to clash with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his planned speech to Congress next week, in an interview with daily newspaper Israel Hayom.
In the interview, published only in Hebrew, the Republican politician — considering a run for the presidency in 2016 — placed the blame for the sorry state of relations between Washington and Jerusalem squarely on the Obama administration.
“President Obama’s foreign policy is a catastrophe,” he said. “There aren’t many places in the world you can point to and say — things have gotten better since Obama’s been in power.
“He believes removal of American influence from the rest of the world will make the world a better place and encourage peace. But history has shown that lack of American involvement creates instability and serious problems.”
Bush, one of the most prominent Republicans contemplating a run for the White House, lamented that America’s enemies no longer feared it, while its allies could no longer rely on it. He pointed to the nuclear negotiations with Iran as well as the burgeoning conflict with Israel over those talks as an example of this.
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From the Daily Mail
Putin is planning to seize key Ukrainian port of Mariupol in the spring, warns America’s top intelligence official
- If the rebels seize Mariupol it would amount to a huge escalation in the war
- It would give Russia a land bridge and supply route to annexed Crimea
- Moscow has struggled to supply Crimea from mainland Russia
America’s top intelligence official is predicting that Vladimir Putin plans to seize the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol in spring.
Such a move by pro-Moscow rebels backed by the Russian army would be a key step in creating a land bridge and supply route to annexed Crimea.
It would amount to a huge escalation in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
From PressTV
University of London SOAS favors academic boycott of Israel
Students and staff at the SOAS school of the University of London have approved an academic boycott of Israel during a week-long referendum.
The Friday vote, which was open to all students, academics, and management, ended with 73 percent voting for and 27 percent voting against the ‘Yes’ campaign to boycott Israel.
The voters were asked whether they agree with the School of Oriental and African Studies, commonly abbreviated as SOAS, joining the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to impose an academic boycott on Israel based on the instructions of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
The BDS is a global campaign which uses economic and political pressure on Israel to comply with the goals of the movement — the end of Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and respect for the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
The PACBI says academic boycott of Israel is based on the fact that the academic institutions are massively complicit in Israel’s persistent denial of basic Palestinian rights, including academic freedom and the right to education.
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From PressTV
Italian MPs back resolution on Palestine independence
Italian parliamentarians have approved a non-binding resolution which calls on the government to recognize Palestine as an independent state, amid growing calls for the recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state.
The resolution was passed on Friday with as many as 300 members of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies voting in favor of the resolution. Forty-five opposed.
The motion for recognizing Palestine as an independent state was presented by Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD).
Earlier this month, Belgium’s parliament approved a resolution calling for Palestine to be recognized as an independent state.
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From Russia Today
Europe ‘feels like Nazi Germany,’ says Madonna
“We’re living in crazy times. It feels like Nazi Germany,” Madonna said in an interview to Europe 1 radio, adding that the situation in Europe is “scary.”
The 56-year-old singer also pointed that France has totally lost its tradition of welcoming diversity and honoring freedom, saying that “anti-Semitism is at an all-time high” in the country.
“It [France] was a country that embraced everyone and encouraged freedom in every way, shape or form – artistic expression of freedom… Now that’s completely gone.”
From Russia Today
Nemtsov was no threat to Russian govt – presidential spokesperson
Boris Nemtsov was killed Friday evening in the center of Moscow. A veteran of Russian politics, he was an influential figure in the 1990s and held the post of deputy prime minister under former President Boris Yeltsin. Though he had been more involved in business than politics since 2003, he was a critic of the Russian government.
“With all due respect to the memory of Boris Nemtsov, in political terms he did not pose any threat to the current Russian leadership or Vladimir Putin. If we compare popularity levels, Putin’s and the government’s ratings and so on, in general Boris Nemtsov was just a little bit more than an average citizen,” Peskov said on Saturday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the assassination and expressed his condolences to the family, Peskov added. “Putin has stressed that this brutal murder has all [the] signs of a contract murder and is extremely provocative.”
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From The Times of Israel
Ex-Obama aide Ross: PM’s speech to Congress ‘definitely a mistake’
Many in Congress feel they’re being asked to publicly ‘choose between president and PM,’ he says; emerging deal keeps Iran a year from potential nukes
Dennis Ross, a former Middle East aide to President Barack Obama, said Friday that he was “worried about the breakdown in trust” between Israel and the US amid a public disagreement with the Obama administration over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress on March 3.
The speech is openly opposed by the White House and some Democratic legislators.
Ross said the current spat between the two leaderships was “clearly one of the low points” in US-Israel relations, even as he acknowledged that Israeli prime ministers and US presidents have been at odds over various issues in the past.
“Israel has only one friend in the world that it can rely on and that’s the United States. It’s important that that relationship be on a solid footing and that it not become partisan,” he said during an interview with Channel 2 Friday night.
Ross said Netanyahu’s insistence to address Congress on Iran next week was a mistake and that it would have been preferable for the prime minister to ask to speak to both houses of Congress privately.
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